WW II Fighter planes

[Gavin]

Spent a ton of time on on the carrier & flight line working on the A6-E, & F-18 but not nearly as cool as a radial engine prop WWII fighter. All but one of my pilots are still alive. TC switched to Harriers from the A6 and caught a heat seeker over Iraq during Desert Storm. Was a great guy. Have a customer with a three radial engine Corsairs. Sweet aircraft! Love the look and the sound. 

 

[jim m]

I have had the great pleasure of talking to several wwll vets and for most it took a life time before they would talk in depth and one man I knew never would give any details. but I am sure many of our modern day vets are the same way, to me they are all members of the greatest generation

[ness]

A couple years ago I sat down at Taco Bell for lunch next to a guy wearing a Veteran WWII hat. I struck up a conversation and it turns out he went into Normandy on D-Day. He was one of the engineers that had the long poles with explosives on the end that blew up the barbed wire. He said he fought at the Bulge, then went on into Germany and was in it until the end. I was just in awe of this guy eating at Taco Bell. Growing up, three doors down, there was a dad of a kid my age who had been at the Bulge. We just never talked about it with him. It was just Kevin's dad, it was just the war, and we'd since been to Korea and were then in Vietnam.

[Champ188]

Good story, ness. Glad you got to meet this guy and have that conversation. I'm sure he enjoyed the chance to talk about it, too.

[Old plug]

There is not many of those guys left Ness. My uncle was in the buldge. He won a Silver Star there. He went to relieve the Bulge with Pattons Army. He joined the Army in 39 got caught in WW11 in europe and never got home again till 46.

I was very fortunate in My lifes work to have access to just about anything I wanted or needed that had to do with WW 1 WW2 and Korea. I lived that history for close to 40 yrs. I have been through the records of all the 5 star generals. Also had 14 file cabinets filled with everything from chunks of wood to pieces of cardboard  and what have you that constituted the diaries of American POWs interned in the Philippines. I used to spend my break time reading those things sometimes. After the fire they moved them to the national archives in Washinton. I helped with that too I slid them down 3 stories of escalators by myself one at a time because there was no electric power. The fire departments would not let it be turned on since they were still in the building putting out re-flashes. Was a very humbeling experience to see those things Other than that the place was mostly a civil service type dump.

 

[Gavin]

My dad's Uncle Will died at Iwo Jima. Have his eagle, globe, and anchor. My buddies dad was their too. Still doing well in his 90's. Super nice guy. PBS in St. Louis did a nice piece on him and some other WWII vets several years ago, it is worth watching if you have the chance.

[Terrierman]

My mother was in the very first graduating class of enlisted Navy Waves back in the big one.  Spent the duration as a radio operator at NAS Jacksonville.  The stories she has shared were incredible.  My dad was a bombardier on B-24 in the Army Air Corps before there was such a thing as U.S. Air Force.  He was lucky to get out alive, those bomber crews had bad statistics.  Never heard one single word from him about what he went through.  Had an uncle who was a Navy Corpsman in the South Pacific.  He never said a word about it to any of us either.  And another uncle who was USMC in North Africa.  Not a peep from him either ever about what he did or saw.  Those folks did some hard things.

[ness]

Well, I lost an uncle in Italy in WWII. My mom came from a big Catholic family and he was the oldest. They never talked about him except to say what a great guy he was. The 'Greatest Generation' is certainly accurate. 

[Old plug]

I never lost anyone in WW2.But iwhen your job is to serve those veterans it should be taken a lot more serious than it was by many people where I worked. Many admistrative mistakes took place with things like awarding of purple hearts, lost recomendations for awards etc. Everyone who worked in that place should have taken it as a personal obligation to try to correct those things. But they did not. They were to busy being beurocrats. 

 

 

[Old plug]

3 hours ago, Terrierman said:

My mother was in the very first graduating class of enlisted Navy Waves back in the big one.  Spent the duration as a radio operator at NAS Jacksonville.  The stories she has shared were incredible.  My dad was a bombardier on B-24 in the Army Air Corps before there was such a thing as U.S. Air Force.  He was lucky to get out alive, those bomber crews had bad statistics.  Never heard one single word from him about what he went through.  Had an uncle who was a Navy Corpsman in the South Pacific.  He never said a word about it to any of us either.  And another uncle who was USMC in North Africa.  Not a peep from him either ever about what he did or saw.  Those folks did some hard things.

MY uncle never would talk about it either. Most of those vets after going through months and years of combat do not talk or want to be reminded of it. I only had two others in service at that tine. A uncle that server in WWI and was drafted into ww2. They finally discharged him becaise of age. A cousin that was a  B29 pilot and was scheduled to leave for the push on Japan when the war ended. If I recall correctly they establisged the USAF I THINK in 1948.  Not sure anymore. It amazes me some of this stuff I can remember but forget where I left my false teeth in minutes. 

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